Not to mention, police radios getting lost is a regular occurrence. A fully encrypted network would require the re-encrypting of every radio out there.
That is not correct. It costs just as much to encrypt one channel as it does to encrypt them all.
There are also different levels of encryption from commercial up to NSA provided keys.
We have portable radios that rotate cryptologic keys on a daily basis. It is a simple matter to change keys at the beginning of a shift. Any radios in the field will get updated as they rotate through the station.
"Ceterum censeo Hillary esse delendam."
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I suppose I could have been given erroneous information by our tech services but that was the answer I was given when I asked why all channels were not encrypted.
Of course, I work in an area where we have at least 57 different police departments all able tied to the same digital server on some channels but being dispatched by different agencies.
When I did a stint with the Feds, if a radio was lost anywhere CONUS, it was a complete recoding done manually. It was quick but still a pain.